• Lenovo has a new range of Ideapads.  (AnandTech)
  
  These include the IdeaPad 5G based on Qualcomm's 8cx processor, which no-one should buy because it's terribly slow, the IdeaPad 5i Pro based on Intel's 11th generation processors which no-one should buy because AMD is much better value and also isn't available in the US, the IdeaPad 5 Pro 14" which has an AMD APU but is also not available in the US, and the IdeaPad 5 Pro 16" which has an AMD APU, will ship in the US starting in May, and...
  
  Well, I personally don't like numeric keypads on laptops - or desktops, really - but it does effectively give you the Four Essential Keys so there's that.
  
  1920x1200 120Hz display, Nvidia MX450 graphics in addition to the APU's integrated graphics, and up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD.
  
  
  
• Sealed court records were exposed by the SolarWinds debacle.  (Krebs on Security)
  
  The article also covers speculation that the SolarWinds breach was enabled by an earlier breach of JetBrains - makers of IntelliJ and PyCharm and more significantly here, TeamCity.
  
  What a fiasco.
  
  
  
• Running Windows on the Arm-based Mac Mini.  (Thurrott.com)
  
  Using a technical preview of Parallels Desktop and an insider preview of Windows on Arm, so not something any sane person would want to do.  You'd be better off with DOSBox-X and Windows Me.
  
  
  
• Facebook has removed the likes count from public pages.  (New York Post)
  
  Because fuck you, that's why.
  
  
  
• Fuck ZDNet...  No, wait, it's always that one idiot.  Why they keep him on staff I don't know, but the rest of the site is still more-or-less worthwhile.
  
  
  
• Blockchain Stalin is at it again.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Saw an unfamiliar host logging in to one of my servers just now with a private key.
  
  Minor heart attack until I realised that it was the backup server doing its daily duty and the hosting company had changed their reverse DNS settings.

Posted by: Rick C at Saturday, January 09 2021 07:40 AM (eqaFC)

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Posted by: PatBuckman at Saturday, January 09 2021 01:19 AM (6y7dz)

Posted by: cxt217 at Saturday, January 09 2021 07:18 AM (4i7w0)

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• Adata is working with Gigabyte and MSI to prepare for DDR5-8400.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The entry spec for DDR5 is 4800, but manufacturers are hoping to have 8400 at launch.  This would be huge for future desktop APUs.
  
  
  
• AMD's upcoming 32-core Epyc 7543 is just 5% slower than Intel's far more expensive 28-core Xeon 8280 assuming you are using two Xeons.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  And the Xeon is Intel's current top of the line, while the 7543 is the middle of AMD's range.
  
  With base and boost clocks of 2.8/3.7GHz, this chip is clocked nearly as high as my desktop, and since it's Zen 3 and not Zen1 like I have, would run around 50% faster on even single-threaded workloads.
  
  
  
• Sonnet has a rather neat little eGPU in their new Breakaway Puck.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Not particularly cheap at $600 for a 5500XT and $900 for a 5700XT, but I'm not sure there are that many options in this space.  Most such devices are built to take a full-size graphics card.
  
  It also serves as a basic dock - Thunderbolt in and out, two USB 3, plus HDMI and Displayport.
  
  
  
• The EPYC3451D4U-2L2T2O8R is a previously undiscovered novel by Hugo Gernsback.  (Serve the Home)
  
  Or possibly an Epyc Embedded microATX motherboard from ASRock.
  
  It's still based on Zen 1 parts, though AMD recently announced Zen 2 Epyc Embedded chips so we might see an upgrade soon.
  
  Compared to full-size  Epyc it uses a much smaller socket and much less power (sub-100W).  Compared to desktop Ryzen - which does make a good CPU for small servers - it offers four-channel memory and RDIMM support for up to 512GB here and 1TB in theory, and more PCIe lanes.
  
  This board is also the first I've seen supporting the built-in 10G Ethernet found in every Ryzen part.  About time.  It also has dual Intel 10Gb and 1Gb ports and yet another port for remote management, plus four U.2 NVMe ports and twelve SAS ports, so a full complement of both networking and I/O for a small board.
  
  
  
• The NYSE is isn't is delisting three Chinese telcos.  (ZDNet)
  
  The companies are, of course, under the thumb of the CCP and the Chinese military and busy stealing any data they can get their hands on, because that's simply how China works.
  
  
  
• Microsoft is adding a newsfeed to the Windows taskbar.  (Thurrott.com)
  
  So that users can disable it until Microsoft abandons the idea.
  
  That's not my take, that's everyone's take.
  
  
  
• Fuck Apple.  (9to5Mac)
  
  Also Twitter, Facebook, and Tech Crunch.
  
  
  
• Meanwhile I'm trying out Vivaldi as an alternative to Chrome.  But given the recent hacks I'm not sure I want to give it my passwords, so kind of a pain.

Fuck Apple Video of the Day

Posted by: J Greely at Friday, January 08 2021 07:14 AM (ZlYZd)

Posted by: Rick C at Saturday, January 09 2021 03:50 AM (eqaFC)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, January 09 2021 04:23 AM (PiXy!)

Posted by: Rick C at Saturday, January 09 2021 04:45 AM (eqaFC)

Posted by: J Greely at Saturday, January 09 2021 09:03 AM (ZlYZd)

Posted by: normal at Saturday, January 09 2021 09:22 AM (obo9H)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, January 09 2021 12:37 PM (PiXy!)

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• Jim Keller has been named CTO of Tenstorrent.  (AnandTech)
  
  He's been behind a lot of what's good in CPUs over the last couple of decades, working on the DEC Alpha, AMD K7 (Athlon) and later guiding (but not designing) Zen, and working for P.A. Semi and then Apple on Arm designs.
  
  Tenstorrent makes AI processors rather than general-purpose CPUs so this isn't likely to become a consumer product.
  
  He was most recently at Intel before telling them to shove their office politics where the sun don't shine resigning to spend more time with his family.
  
  
  
• DOSBox-X is DOSBox only X.  (DOSBox-X)
  
  It supports Windows 95, 98, and ME, and also the NEC PC-98, Roland MT-32 emulation, internet access, and useful tricks like snapshotting your machine state.  (Perfect for games with crappy save systems.)
  
  
  
• Android Things is the latest member of the Google Deadpool.  (InfoQ)
  
  It is no longer accepting new projects and will be shut down entirely exactly 365 days from now.
  
  
  
• GitHub has received a US license to operate in Iran.  (ZDNet)
  
  Countdown to it being banned in Iran...
  
  
  
• Telegram lets you triangulate the precise location of any idiot who turns on the People Nearby feature.  (Ars Technica)
  
  Telegram's response so far is yeah, whatever.

Posted by: Rick C at Thursday, January 07 2021 12:17 AM (eqaFC)

Posted by: PatBuckman at Thursday, January 07 2021 04:29 AM (6y7dz)

Posted by: Jay at Friday, January 08 2021 12:52 PM (0jVI9)

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• Sydney has gone into, well, not a lockdown, but a something, with masks mandated for pretty much anyone out in public.
  
  We had five Bat Flu cases yesterday.
  
  I mean, it's not like I want to go outside anyway.  Sydney is catching the edge of the Cyclone Imogen storm system right now and it's absolutely pissing down.  And Warragamba Dam is 98% full already, so we can expect flooding in western Sydney at any moment.
  
  (This time last year it was 63% full and western Sydney was on fire.)
  
  
  
• Crypto miners say fuck you to anyone hoping to get a new graphics card.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  With Bitcoin and Ethereum on the zoom again it's likely that mid-range and last-gen cards will quickly become impossible to find as well.
  
  And it's not just theoretical.  (WCCFTech)
  
  Some guy got hold of 78 RTX 3080s and built them into a mining rig.  Some other people are slightly peeved.
  
  If crypto prices keep increasing, AMD CPUs will also become viable, and the shortage of 5000-series parts is already causing increases in 3000-series pricing.
  
  
  
• Original Linus says fuck Intel and their short-sighted policy on ECC memory.  (Tom's Hardware)

  ECC absolutely matters.
  
  ECC availability matters a lot - exactly because Intel has been instrumental in killing the whole ECC industry with it's horribly bad market segmentation.

  He also doesn't like 80 character line limits.
  
  
  
• A Windows guy is taking a look at the new Arm-based Mac Mini.  (Thurrott.com)
  
  Just an unboxing so far, but he's pretty fair with both praise and criticism and not a member of the tame Apple press, so the follow-ups should  be worth reading.
  
  
  
• There's a new PlayStation game out: Magic Castle.  (Engadget)
  
  Where by PlayStation we mean PlayStation.  None of this numbered bullshit.
  
  
  
• Ether - the Ethereum currency - has hit $1000 again.  (Ars Technica)
  
  Coupled with high gas fees this makes the network completely unusable.  But I should be able to swap a tiny amount of ETH for a ton of Matic for the work I'm doing at my day job.
  
  
  
• Alibaba CEO Jack Ma hasn't been seen in public since October due to a scheduling conflict.  (Reuters)
  
  The conflict being not wanting to get vanned by the CCP.

Posted by: PatBuckman at Wednesday, January 06 2021 02:16 AM (6y7dz)

Posted by: Philip Fraering at Wednesday, January 06 2021 04:05 AM (Clxcy)

Posted by: Philip Fraering at Wednesday, January 06 2021 06:59 AM (Clxcy)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, January 06 2021 09:16 AM (PiXy!)

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• Crucial's DDR4-5100 RAM delivers an average of nearly 1% better performance than DDR4-4400.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  At $900 for a 16GB kit, basically any other hardware upgrade will deliver better value for money.  This is a marketing gimmick, nothing more.
  
  
  
• URL shorteners track you for advertising revenue.  (Like Miles)
  
  Even if they don't show you an ad, they set ad cookies using an intermediary redirect.
  
  
  
• An overview of USB 5GbE adapters.  (Serve the Home)
  
  After reviewing three different adapters, the takeaway is just buy the Sabrent.  It's the most reliable and also the cheapest.
  
  They're planning to review a QNAP model, which I hope will also be good.  QNAP is an established brand for networking gear and I would hope they're not selling garbage even if it's just an OEM product they've put their name on.
  
  
  
• Facebook bad.  (The Atlantic)
  
  They do have a point here, but there's a reason I refer to them as Fascist Quarterly.
  
  
  
• Apple has decided not to ban the MacOS app Amphetamine after all.  (9to5Mac)
  
  They said the app - which simply gives you fine-grained control over your computer's sleep settings - broke the App Store guidelines on drugs and alcohol.

  Your app appears to promote inappropriate use of controlled substances. Specifically, your app name and icon include references to controlled substances, pills.

  Apple is run by morons.  Common sense prevailed in this instance, but that's not going to last.

• Lessons learned from the SSDNodes outage: They have pretty good support for a budget VPS provider.  30 minutes to resolve a host node problem at 1AM on a Sunday is fine, though perhaps better monitoring could have caught this earlier.
  
  Also, the backups appear to be snapshots attached to the host node.  Fine if you accidentally splatted your database, not so useful if the entire node goes down.
  
  After the reboot, I averaged 487MB per second creating a 60GB file (for setting up a ZFS filesystem).  I've seen it running faster but that's quite acceptable, and faster than you get on Digital Ocean volumes for example.
  
  
  
• Need 5GbE?  Only have USB?  Not sure what to buy?  Serve the Home got you covered.
  
  Sabrent NT-SS5G.
  StarTech US5GA30.
  TRENDnet TUC-ET5G.
  
  In short: Don't get the TRENDnet.  It bad.
  
  The others only deliver around 3.5Gbps, because they run USB 3.0, which is only 5Gbps itself and has its own overhead to account for.  But if you're otherwise stuck on plain old Gigabit Ethernet that's still a pretty big gain.
  
  
  
• Global app spending reached $407 million on Christmas.  (SensorTower)
  
  Apple removed 39,000 games from their Chinese app store on New Year's Eve, including 95% of the top 1500 paid titles.  (Reuters)
  
  For every hard-won success there is an equal and opposite China ruins everything.
  
  
  
• ZipFly generates Zip files on the fly with Python.  (GitHub)
  
  That is, it doesn't need to write to disk or build the entire file in memory first.  This is great if, for example, your app needs to deliver multiple CSV or JSON downloads at once in a convenient form.
  
  I have a use for this.
  
  
  
• Tohru went splut again just now...  At the exact moment my new combination washer/dryer switched from the wash cycle to the dry cycle.
  
  Which might be a coincidence except that my home office is on the same power circuit as the laundry.
  
  Time to look for a small UPS, I think.  I have one lying around but it's pretty old and at this point it's more of a hazardous waste boat anchor.
  
  My iMac didn't blip, but it wasn't running anything and the screen was off, so it wouldn't have been drawing much power anyway.
  
  
  

• This happened last month but I missed it and so did everyone else: The EU has signed a €145 billion declaration to develop next-gen processors.  (EETimes)
  
  This is a very EU thing to do.  They will allocate "up to" €145 billion over the next few years.  The real amount might turn out to be 10% of that, and of that, perhaps 10% will be spent on anything worthwhile.
  
  
  
• Meanwhile, the top seven tech companies gained $3.4 trillion in market cap during 2020.  (CNBC)
  
  If you keeping pumping money into the economy, you're going to get inflation.  Somewhere.  If it's not grocery prices, it's something else.
  
  
  
• ECS has a half mini-ITX motherboard.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  You might think that mini-ITX is about as small as you can make a full-featured motherboard.  And you'd be right.  This is an Atom-based board for embedded applications.  I'm not sure what the advantage is over the mini-STX form factor, except that it does match up with the standard IO backplate shared by everything from mini-ITX to EATX.
  
  
  
• PyPy is seeking sponsorship to enable support for MacOS on Arm.  (More PyPy)
  
  They already support Linux on Arm, so it's not a new compiler, just fixing it to deal with weird stuff Apple has done.
  
  
  
• There's a backdoor account in Zyxel enterprise firewalls and VPN gateways.  (ZDNet)
  
  It's been patched on most models, but who keeps up with all the patches on network appliances?
  
  
  
• After only reading tech stuff and the Hololive subreddit for a couple of weeks, and ignoring the rest of the internet, I visited Twitter again today.
  
  It is a very strange place.
  
  
  
• Tohru - my other desktop - just went splut.  Literally since it's plugged into a 400W Logitech speaker system and it makes a pretty loud splut sound when it powers off.  It's working again now.  Not sure why but the CPU temperature seems rather high if it's being reported correctly.  I might need to get a can of compressed air and clean it out while I'm installing the upgrade bits.
  
  
  
• SSDNodes are upgrading their hardware in Los Angeles, which I noticed when signing up for the two new servers was sold out.  My original server with them is in LA, so it will get migrated to new hardware.
  
  I mention this because it's currently on a Xeon E5-2690 v3, a 2014 CPU that makes perfect sense for a budget VPS provider.  It was a high-end part then and it still provides decent performance.
  
  They'll most likely be upgrading to a Xeon Silver 4214 which is what they seem to use now.  That's a 2019 part, but this being Intel is actually slightly slower.  (CPUBenchmark)
  
  
  
• Then they came for Top Hat Studios...  And got a well-deserved middle finger.
  
  
  I was only vaguely aware of this game previously, but now I've bought it.  Well, also there was nothing interesting in the Steam sale.
  
  Life hack for game publishers: If you tell the Twitter mob to go fuck itself, I will buy your game.  It's really that simple.
  
  
  
• There was no English-language Hololive Minecraft today. Send help.
  

Posted by: normal at Sunday, January 03 2021 06:09 AM (obo9H)

Posted by: Rick C at Sunday, January 03 2021 08:31 AM (eqaFC)

Posted by: normal at Sunday, January 03 2021 04:07 PM (obo9H)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, January 03 2021 05:35 PM (PiXy!)

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• I grabbed two more SSDNodes servers before their current sale ends, one in Dallas in the same datacentre as this server, and one in Singapore since that's their closest location to Sydney.
  
  Singapore is a bit annoying because the routing between eastern Australia and there is random as hell.  It's a 90ms ping from my little Vultr node in Sydney, but a 230ms ping from my house, also in Sydney.  So I need to fiddle with routes to make it worthwhile.
  
  If they do open in Australia - which is possible because they use Hivelocity's datacentres and they're right here in Sydney - then I'll move it across.  You need to pay a year in advance to get their good prices, but if you cancel you do get an account credit so it's fine in the long run.
  
  It's certainly convenient to be able to spin up an instance with AWS or Digital Ocean or Vultr for just an hour or three, but you sure do pay for that.
  
  
  
• Asus has a 28" 4K monitor for $260.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Slight catch: It's a TN panel.  I have one like it, since these 28" TN models were the first affordable 4K displays, and it's very good for TN, but it doesn't measure up to even a middle-of-the-road IPS or VA display,
  
  
  
• The Core i9 11900K is supposedly faster than the Ryzen 5950X in single-core workloads.  (WCCFTech)
  
  That's possible if it is hitting 5.3GHz as the same leak suggests.  Ice Lake seems to be a good design, just built on a bad process.
  
  It's slower than both the 5800X and the 10900K in multi-core benchmarks, though, and the 5950X crushes it like a bug.
  
  
  
• A proposed California law makes it legal to punch GrubHub in the face.  (CA.gov)
  
  Probably.  I haven't read the fine print.  
  
  Of course this is the California state legislature, so it will somehow end up making everything worse, and probably also cause an earthquake and/or plague of locusts.
  
  
  
• Microsoft got breached in the SolarWinds debacle.  (Bleeping Computer)
  
  From the sound of things they have sufficient auditing to know that the attackers never had write access to any code and they verified separately that nothing was changed, but that's still pretty nasty.
  
  
  
• Farmville has gone to the great milking shed in the sky.  (CNet)
  
  It has plucked its last chicken.  Pickled its last onion.  Joined the bleedin' dawn chorus invisible.
  
  
  
• Google is cross with the FAA's new rules for drones.  (Reuters)
  
  The rules require a low-power radio transponder that broadcasts the drone's ID, so that authorities can track the owner.  Google wants drones to use internet tracking instead, so that they can track the owner.
  
  
  
• California's government sucks.  (Bloomberg)
  
  You don't say.
  
  
  
• It's kind of nice to just post the stories of the day again and not be trying to recap an entire year.  It was worth it though; there was a lot of important stuff I had forgotten and it's much easier to access now.

Posted by: normal at Saturday, January 02 2021 04:01 AM (obo9H)

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